Git
Distributed version control software system / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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Git (/ɡɪt/)[8] is a distributed version control system[9] that tracks versions of files. It is often used to control source code by programmers collaboratively developing software.
Original author(s) | Linus Torvalds[1] |
---|---|
Developer(s) | Junio Hamano and others[2] |
Initial release | 7 April 2005; 19 years ago (2005-04-07) |
Stable release | |
Repository | |
Written in | Primarily in C, with GUI and programming scripts written in Shell script, Perl, Tcl and Python[4][5] |
Operating system | POSIX (Linux, macOS, Solaris, AIX), Windows |
Available in | English |
Type | Version control |
License | GPL-2.0-only[lower-roman 1][7] |
Website | git-scm |
Design goals of Git include speed, data integrity, and support for distributed, non-linear workflows – thousands of parallel branches running on different computers.[10][11][12]
Git was created for use in the development of the Linux kernel by Linus Torvalds and others developing the kernel.[13]
As with most other distributed version control systems, and unlike most client–server systems, Git maintains a local copy of the entire repository, a.k.a. repo, with history and version-tracking abilities, independent of network access or a central server. A repo is stored on each computer in a standard directory with additional, hidden files to provide version control capabilities.[14] Git provides features to synchronize changes between repos that share history; copied (cloned) from each other. For collaboration, Git supports synchronizing with a repos on remote machines. Although all repos (with the same history) are peers, developers often use a central server to host a repo to hold an integrated copy.
Git is a free and open-source software shared under the GPL-2.0-only license.
The trademark "Git" is registered by the Software Freedom Conservancy, marking its official recognition and continued evolution in the open-source community.
Today, Git is the defacto standard version control system. It is the most popular distributed version control system, with nearly 95% of developers reporting it as their primary version control system as of 2022.[15] It is the most widely used source-code management tool among professional developers. There are offerings of Git repository services, including GitHub, SourceForge, Bitbucket and GitLab.[16][17][18][19][20]